Hi, I bought a Celestron Powerseeker 80eq for my kids and want to get a decent eyepiece to view the moon and planets as best this scope can do...without breaking the bank. I know nothing of the subject beyond all the confusing reading I've done.

I'm also getting the Omni 40mm 1.25" Plossl. Is this a horrible decision or are the reviews reliable?

Lastly, I've been in IT for over 20 years and enjoy tinkering, but I want to get it going fairly quickly without overdoing my typical detail work and driving my 2 little girls crazy as they wait to use it after opening on Christmas morning. Are there any tips for things to avoid that people tend to waste time on as they set a first time scope?

I'm so excited to use the scope with my kids. I've already begun plans to build a viewing platform in our back yard and nobody knows why.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

I always encourage people to post a link to the scope they are discussing to insure that we are talking about the same thing. Is this your scope?https://www.amazon.c...telescope&amp;psc=1https://www.celestro...-80eq-telescopeI am going to assume that your purchased this based on price rather than any deep knowledge of telescopes. So I am going to assume that your budget was under $200. Some thoughts.

First I would not get the 40 mm Omni Plossl for this scope. A 32 might make sense, but more on that later. Equatorial mounts, good ones, are great for astronomy but they are not intuitive to the average person. I avoid them. This is not up/down, left/right type of arrangement. You will be working in Right Assentation and Declination in and Equatorial frame of reference. So you will need to learn that in order to make good use of the mount ( the thing that holds the optical tube). I post two videos here that show you what it takes to use an Equitorial mount. You should study these before you give them the scope.How to align an Equatorial (EQ) mounthttps://www.youtube....h?v=plx6XXDgf2E

How to use an Equatorial (EQ) mounthttps://www.youtube....h?v=F7HVDKAZ6eMThis mount will require alignment with Polaris, as noted in the video. The Right assentation and declination dials on a low cost (cheap) mount like this are not going to be very accurate so they are not going to do a good job of helping you target things. The dials are too small and the tripod will be somewhat wobbly, very frustrating. That is the reputation of the PowerSeeker line of scopes. For first timers I recommend some kind of AltAz, Altitude Azimuth type mount, like the kind you might use for a camera. Up/Down, Left and right. It is easy to understand and easy to use. Or a Dobsonian mount which is also AltAz but looks more like a lazy Susan rather than a tripod. Some Dobs sit on the ground and some are tabletops.So, I would not recommend that telescope package. But if you decide to keep it, these are eyepieces I will recommend:32 mm Plossl eyepiece - Celestron, Meade, Orion, GSO - $30 to $40https://agenaastro.c...-celestron.htmlCelestron 8-24 mm Zoom eyepiecehttps://agenaastro.c...m-eyepiece.html